Elf
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day seven hundred and eighty-four: Paired with others, Mike and Tina foster a secret child... an egg.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 37th cycle. Now cycle 38!_

_**PRE-CHRISTMAS NON-CHRISTMAS:** It's already my third holiday season of Gleekathon, woo! So happy about that :D Anyhoo, just to explain what I'm doing for it this year: How it goes is I always have a set of stories with Christmas-y titles but non-Christmas-y plots, so to give an air of the season but not too much ;) First year was '12 Days of Christmas', last year was 'Reindeer'. This year's theme is "Christmas Movies" :) It'll run from December 8th to 19th, after which I have a slightly bigger undertaking to take us to Christmas Eve (stay tuned and find out, ha! ;)). So here we go!_

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><p><strong>"Elf"<br>15yo Mike/Tina  
>Chang Squared #15 (following 'When we became us')<strong>

**A/N: A propos of nothing, as of today I am a free woman!  
>I finished university yesterday! *boogies* <strong>

When they'd walked into class that day and seen the oddly shaped object sitting on Mrs. Meier's desk, covered with a cloth no less, the speculations began to run as to what was underneath. But then the teacher arrived and no amount of flourish could make two dozen eggs look intriguing anymore. Then she explained what they were for and the excitement – already inexistent – dipped dangerously low.

They weren't unfamiliar with the assignment: get paired up and then receive your very own egg child to look after like dutiful parents… and make sure not to crack, break, boil, or turn into an omelette. Tina looked over her shoulder to meet Mike's gaze. He gave something between a shrug and a smirk and she tried to hold back her laughter.

Much like before, her excitement and his both took a hit when they discovered they would not be paired together. Mike was paired with Cheerio Alicia while Tina found herself matched to Azimio. By the way he liked tossing and catching the egg once they received theirs, she truly feared her baby would get… scrambled.

"So how's your 'wife'?" Tina asked Mike with a half-snort as they got on the bus that afternoon.

"Already talking pre-schools. How's your 'husband'?"

"He needs to learn caution," she shook her head and frowned. "This sucks, we should have been together."

The rest of the ride was fairly quiet. But then just as he was getting off, he said something. "At least after that you've still got me… your lover," he smiled, chin up and adorable. Tina beamed.

"I do…" And that was when she'd had the idea.

The next morning, Tina wasn't on the bus with him. He figured she'd overslept… that happened. But then he got a message. _"I need to see you. Meet me at my locker. Don't bring the wife…"_ He frowned, unsure of what was happening. But this was Tina, so he just went with it.

When he arrived, she saw him and there was this look on her face kind of… mysterious, dramatic. "Hey, I got your message, what…"

"Michael, we need to talk…" her voice matched the look on her face, like she was acting.

"O… kay?" She gestured and he guessed that meant 'play along.' So he took a step. "What is it?" he intoned.

"I know what we have isn't much, you have your wife, and I have my husband. But I'm afraid something has come along…" She reached in her locker, presenting 'something,' cupped in her hands. "We're pregg-nant…" she emphasized the 'egg' part, momentarily breaking character at her own joke, and he just knew she'd hesitated between that and 'egg-specting.' "It's yours…" she got back into it, turning her head away dramatically.

"What the hell?" Azimio passed by right then, drawing Tina out of character again.

"Egg beater!" she called at him, which only got them the sound of his cackling down the hall. Tina turned back to Mike. "Okay, moment's kind of over," she shrugged. "But, you know, I figured why shouldn't we get to do this after all."

"Our secret love egg?" he smiled, and she laughed.

"Isn't he adorable?" she handed the egg over.

"So it's a he?" Mike asked.

"Hey, if you can find proof one way or another, go for it. Until then it's a he," she nodded.

"Well I'll take good care of him," he promised.

The next day, Tina met Mike on the bus again and found him carrying a round tin box. "What's that?" she asked, and he pulled back the lid to reveal the egg kept safe on a 'cushion' she later figured out was a sock filled with cotton balls.

"Little guy didn't cry all night," he smiled.

"Look at you, proud papa," she laughed, then blinked when she saw… "Did you draw on him?"

"Just gave him a face," he lifted egg out of the box, showing her the eyes, the nose, the smile, the hair curl… the ears. She just had to keep laughing.

"Looks like an elf," she declared. He shushed, covering the egg's 'ears.'

"He's very sensitive about them."

"I think he's the cutest egg ever," she amended, smiling, which quickly turned to collective panic when the bus hit a pothole, and both she and Mike reached to secure the elfish egg. It took a moment for them to accept to move again and they both looked to their hands. "He's okay," she breathed out.

"Let's put him back in the box," Mike suggested, and Tina agreed.

Once they got to school they shared 'custody' of the box and the egg within, alternating from one to the other as they got from class to class. They would meet with their actual partners when they had to, but they couldn't wait to get back to one another and to the presently codenamed 'Elf' child. By the end of the week they knew much more about this one, which did not count toward their grade, than about the ones that did. Azimio had broken the egg three times and Mrs. Meier had finally stopped allowing them to replace it. As for Alicia, she seemed to prefer doing it all on her own, denying Mike any input. Which was fine by both Tina and Mike… more time for their secret love egg…

"What are we going to do with him?" Tina frowned at the end of the week, and the end of the assignment. "I can't break him…" she looked to Mike sadly.

"Well we don't have to. But it'd probably be a good idea to empty him."

"Yeah…" she sighed. "I'll take care of it," she nodded.

"Need a hand?" he asked, and she smiled.

With the egg emptied and cleaned – which then required Mike to touch up the drawn features again – Tina gave it a clear coat to protect it. Placed in the tin box again, their elf son was good as new. "My dad's been bugging me all week about this," she shook her head as they looked over their completed work. Mike looked over at her.

"About what?" She looked at him, like she didn't want to say.

"Egg babies… real babies…" she stretched out the words so he could place his conclusions in between. He blinked, chuckled. "Leave it to my father to talk to his fifteen-year-old daughter about kids," she laughed. "I think he just wanted to see my reaction or something. I put him at ease," she promised.

"Good," Mike bowed his head.

"Although…" she pondered, then smirked and laughed at the panic on his face. "You're too easy."

THE END

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><p><strong>AN: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
><strong>**In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
><strong>******always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!******


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